Written By: T.K. Kawasaki

Riley is a senior, left-handed pitcher at Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California. His journey at Champion’s QUEST began with a tragedy. As an 8th grader, he suffered a broken elbow due to mismanaged pitching volume and stress management. With less than one year till his first high school season, the race was on! As an 8th grader with low physical abilities but with high baseball experience, a plan was developed around long-term athletic development. Beginning his journey in 8th grade, the ultimate goal was set to five years from then; Which was to graduate high school as a collegiately committed athlete.

Long-term athletic development begins with what I call the Tokyo Tower model. The tower begins with a wide base and is built narrower as it reaches the top. To reach the impressive height of 1,902 feet, a large foundation must be built first. In Riley’s journey, the top of the tower was collegiate baseball. To reach that height, a large base of physical abilities had to be built to sustain such a high goal. We began with building general strength, plyometrics, and overall quality of all athletic movements. This allowed his body to adapt to intense pitching mechanical needs.

Four years later, Riley entered his senior year at Valley Christian as a third year varsity player and his second season as the ace, following a stellar season ending with First Team All-League honors. Our focus for this season was to increase the efficiency of his pitching mechanics in order to minimize stress and increase pitching velocity. Essentially, to get more swing and misses. Through two outings, he has pitched 6.1 innings with 12 strikeouts. Although the sample size is small, we can observe an improvement compared to last season.

Riley and his family committed to prioritizing development and growth as an 8th grader. From a major elbow injury to a high school ace with a college commitment. He exemplifies the long-term development model that we preach at Champion’s Quest Athlete Academy.